CUDDLING her eight-week-old son, Lisa Potts is clearly blissfully in love with her new arrival. Dressed in his soft, stripy babygro, gurgling little Jude gazes up at his mum.

"I had a lovely pregnancy, very smooth and easy," says Lisa. "It went so fast! But by the end I was just desperate for him to be here."

For now, she's revelling in motherhood. But Lisa knows that one day she will have to tell Jude and his brother Alfie about her terrifying past.

It's 10 years since that horrific day when the nursery nurse courageously fended off a machete-wielding madman during a teddy bears' picnic at St Luke's Primary School in Wolverhampton.

She received deep cuts to her back, wounds across her head and base of her skull, severed tendons in both hands and a fractured wrist. But her actions, protecting the children as schizophrenic Horrett Campbell hacked at her, ensured that all of the children survived the ordeal. The traumatic scenes are etched on Lisa's memory.

And those memories are still overwhelmingly painful, as she discovered when two days before she gave birth to 8lb 2oz Jude on September 6, she dropped two-and-a-half-year-old Alfie off at pre-school for the first time.

"I've left Alfie at playgroup before, but this was a proper little nursery, like the one I used to work at," says Lisa, 31. "It was very emotional because it brought it all back, hearing the children laughing and screaming, and part of me was terrified.

"My old feelings came flooding back. I sometimes think about whether I could have raised my hand a bit higher and if it would have stopped another child being injured. I've gone over and over it in my mind so many times.

"I still have times when I see someone who looks like Horrett Campbell or I might be in a tight space and start panicking. I keep it under control and let it pass. Campbell was mentally ill. Whether he knew what he was doing that day we'll never really know.

"It worries me that he might one day be freed but, realistically, I don't think he ever will be.

The psychological scars of the attack will stay with Lisa forever. But she is determined not to let it hold her back.

She continues: "I don't want to be stuck in that one moment forever. It's a massive part of my life and it will never go away. But there is more to me than just those eight minutes.

"Seeing children's faces cut open will never go from my mind.

"My body just went into shock in order to survive I think. I suffered from flashbacks for a good five or six years and I didn't sleep properly in all that time.

"I didn't truly deal with the emotional side of things until much later on."

Already Lisa, who was awarded the George Medal by the Queen for her bravery, has started to tell Alfie, a typically inquisitive toddler, about the scarring on her left arm.

She says: "Alfie looks at my arm and says: 'What's your poorly?' I tell him a man hurt my arm. There's no point in lying. When he starts to ask more questions I will tell him more.

"I don't want him finding out from someone in the playground.

"And my mum's got all the awards and photographs up on the wall at her place so he's bound to want to know what they're for soon. It's a story I will have to tell my children and my grandchildren.

"I try and keep in touch with all the children and they all sent me cards when I had Jude. I can't believe they're all at senior school now. I see them now and they're teenagers. It's a miracle they all survived.

"Dunblane was months before and I am amazed we all escaped with our lives."

Lisa returned to work in January 1997, but struggled to cope and quit for good six months later. The slightest scream from a child, even out of happiness, would send her into a panic.

She admits she probably went back too soon.

It wasn't until after her #68,000 criminal injuries compensation came through in 2001 that Lisa finally attempted to face her demons. "For the first time I felt I was going to be able to very slowly move on and get my life back together," she says. "I had to ask myself where I saw my life going."

Lisa went back to college, qualified as a counsellor and set up her charity Believe 2 Achieve. It was also the year she met handsome cop Dave Webb, who she wed in 2002.

"Dave was the right person at the right time," says Lisa. "I was ready to meet someone. I told him everything but he never pressured me. He just accepted it as art of my life and as been so supportive ever since."

Although the family are living in Telford, Shropshire - Lisa grew weary of being constantly recognised in her home town - they are planning to move back to Wolverhampton.

Alfie and now Jude have also played a big part in helping Lisa come to terms with her past.

She says: "Having Alfie and Jude and opening this new chapter in my life has helped me move on. We told Alfie that he was going to have a new baby brother or sister after the first scan and he was very excited. The day I went into hospital he went to stay with my mum and dad.

"We told him when he saw me again we'd have a little baby.

"After the birth I remember him running into the room and I got quite emotional. He looked so grown-up!

"He gave Jude a look as if to say: 'So, is this him, then?' I don't think it dawned on him that we were actually going to bring him home with us."

"At first he was a little bit jealous and would say: 'Don't feed Jude, play with me instead!' But I think that's only natural. Over the last few weeks he's come round a lot.

"He always gives Jude a kiss before and if he's crying, he'll gently tell him to 'shh-shh' which is sweet.

"We've all adapted quite well. With your first child it's a real lifestyle change and a shock to the system. It's so much responsibility and it can be overwhelming. But when the second one comes along you're a lot more prepared.

"Any more kids? Dave says it's up to me which could be dangerous! All I know is that bringing them up is the most important job I'll ever do."